Published: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, December 31, 2012 at 7:37 p.m.

MILLS RIVER — “Stop — be still,” whispered Simon Harvey, training his binoculars on a tangle of privet and wild blackberry bordering a sod field off Jeffress Road. “I think we've got a Savannah.”

Harvey's friend and fellow birder, Wayne Forsythe, froze in place, sweeping the same thicket with his optics in search of the yellow eye striping that distinguishes the bird from its more common cousin, the song sparrow.

“This is their kind of habitat, but the wind isn't helping,” Forsythe said, his eyes watering from the 20-degree wind chill. “They're being a little skulky today. Usually, we'd be kicking up dozens of them as we walked down through here.”

Forsythe should know, as he's skirted this same flooded ditch hundreds of times over the 26 years he's spent birding in Henderson County. For 16 of those, the retired New Jersey detective and local plumber has organized the county's Audubon Christmas Bird Count, a national wildlife census conducted by citizen scientists now in its 113th year.

From Dec. 14 to Jan. 5, tens of thousands of volunteers like Harvey and Forsythe will venture into backyards, fields, forests and waterways to add a new layer of data to the Audubon Society's dense archive of bird numbers. Last year, more than 2,200 groups — each covering a 15-mile radius over one day — ticked off 60 million birds.

However, “this is not just about counting birds,” said Gary Langham, Audubon's chief scientist. Data from the Christmas bird counts provide researchers with valuable insight into population and avian habitat trends, he said, and inform decisions by government agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

By itself, the 5,244 birds tallied by 16 volunteer counters this past Sunday doesn't have much scientific relevance, Forsythe explained. Last year's count nearly doubled that, thanks to large flocks of crows, robins and grackles that showed up on a windless, warmer day last January.

“This is one of the nastiest days I've had in 16 years of doing the count,” Forsythe said, pulling his collar up against the 30-mile-an-hour gusts that were forcing birds deep into cover. “You can't draw any reliable data from a day like this.”

When combined with numbers from across the nation, and from previous counts by the same expert crew of local birders on the same week over decades, the results gain more weight. Audubon has used Christmas count data, combined with long-running breeding bird surveys, to document sharp declines in 20 common birds over the last 40 years.

They include several birds of grassy, open country, such as the grasshopper sparrow, field sparrow, lark sparrow and eastern meadowlark, whose numbers have plummeted 73 percent since 1967.

Historically, Henderson County has racked up the highest species numbers of any Christmas count in the mountains: an average of 83 species, Forsythe said. This year, volunteers spotted 81 species, including a peregrine falcon flying over Etowah, prey clutched in its talons, three palm warblers, two ravens in Mills River and a merlin.

“They're not super-rare, but those are birds that we don't see that often on a count,” said Forsythe. He acknowledges that Henderson County isn't as mountainous as other “count circle” areas in Western North Carolina and boasts a more diverse array of habitats, including good amounts of standing water that draw in waterfowl and vast agricultural fields that act as landing zones for errant shorebirds.

Even outside of Christmastime, birders are notorious counters, tracking both population numbers of rare warblers and numbers of species seen in their lifetimes. Forsythe's “life list” currently sits at 692 species in North America, a phenomenal number considering there are roughly 900 wild bird species naturally occurring on the continent north of Mexico.

Sod fields in Mills River have produced such unusual finds for Forsythe as a snow bunting, which breeds in the arctic tundra; a glossy ibis, a coastal wading bird; and even a lone piping plover, a globally threatened shorebird.

“It's not that I'm brilliant,” he said modestly. “I just put in thousands of hours a year looking.”

Eventually, the plump Savannah sparrow showed himself, timidly hopping down to a waterside branch for a drink. Forsythe made a mental note, adding Passerculus sandwichensis to his tally of birds spotted. Then he turned the ignition on his orange Ford car and set off to find some red-breasted nuthatches in a nearby pine grove.

<p>MILLS RIVER — “Stop — be still,” whispered Simon Harvey, training his binoculars on a tangle of privet and wild blackberry bordering a sod field off Jeffress Road. “I think we've got a Savannah.”</p><p>Harvey's friend and fellow birder, Wayne Forsythe, froze in place, sweeping the same thicket with his optics in search of the yellow eye striping that distinguishes the bird from its more common cousin, the song sparrow.</p><p>“This is their kind of habitat, but the wind isn't helping,” Forsythe said, his eyes watering from the 20-degree wind chill. “They're being a little skulky today. Usually, we'd be kicking up dozens of them as we walked down through here.”</p><p>Forsythe should know, as he's skirted this same flooded ditch hundreds of times over the 26 years he's spent birding in Henderson County. For 16 of those, the retired New Jersey detective and local plumber has organized the county's Audubon Christmas Bird Count, a national wildlife census conducted by citizen scientists now in its 113th year. </p><p>From Dec. 14 to Jan. 5, tens of thousands of volunteers like Harvey and Forsythe will venture into backyards, fields, forests and waterways to add a new layer of data to the Audubon Society's dense archive of bird numbers. Last year, more than 2,200 groups — each covering a 15-mile radius over one day — ticked off 60 million birds.</p><p>However, “this is not just about counting birds,” said Gary Langham, Audubon's chief scientist. Data from the Christmas bird counts provide researchers with valuable insight into population and avian habitat trends, he said, and inform decisions by government agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.</p><p>By itself, the 5,244 birds tallied by 16 volunteer counters this past Sunday doesn't have much scientific relevance, Forsythe explained. Last year's count nearly doubled that, thanks to large flocks of crows, robins and grackles that showed up on a windless, warmer day last January.</p><p>“This is one of the nastiest days I've had in 16 years of doing the count,” Forsythe said, pulling his collar up against the 30-mile-an-hour gusts that were forcing birds deep into cover. “You can't draw any reliable data from a day like this.”</p><p>When combined with numbers from across the nation, and from previous counts by the same expert crew of local birders on the same week over decades, the results gain more weight. Audubon has used Christmas count data, combined with long-running breeding bird surveys, to document sharp declines in 20 common birds over the last 40 years.</p><p>They include several birds of grassy, open country, such as the grasshopper sparrow, field sparrow, lark sparrow and eastern meadowlark, whose numbers have plummeted 73 percent since 1967. </p><p>Historically, Henderson County has racked up the highest species numbers of any Christmas count in the mountains: an average of 83 species, Forsythe said. This year, volunteers spotted 81 species, including a peregrine falcon flying over Etowah, prey clutched in its talons, three palm warblers, two ravens in Mills River and a merlin.</p><p>“They're not super-rare, but those are birds that we don't see that often on a count,” said Forsythe. He acknowledges that Henderson County isn't as mountainous as other “count circle” areas in Western North Carolina and boasts a more diverse array of habitats, including good amounts of standing water that draw in waterfowl and vast agricultural fields that act as landing zones for errant shorebirds.</p><p>Even outside of Christmastime, birders are notorious counters, tracking both population numbers of rare warblers and numbers of species seen in their lifetimes. Forsythe's “life list” currently sits at 692 species in North America, a phenomenal number considering there are roughly 900 wild bird species naturally occurring on the continent north of Mexico.</p><p>Sod fields in Mills River have produced such unusual finds for Forsythe as a snow bunting, which breeds in the arctic tundra; a glossy ibis, a coastal wading bird; and even a lone piping plover, a globally threatened shorebird. </p><p>“It's not that I'm brilliant,” he said modestly. “I just put in thousands of hours a year looking.”</p><p>Eventually, the plump Savannah sparrow showed himself, timidly hopping down to a waterside branch for a drink. Forsythe made a mental note, adding Passerculus sandwichensis to his tally of birds spotted. Then he turned the ignition on his orange Ford car and set off to find some red-breasted nuthatches in a nearby pine grove.</p><p>Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.</p>